Gender inequality exit in so many places, people face this problem even in the workplace and no matter what industry. In the case study, we are going to figure out the gender inequality in the film industry and being a firefighter.
“Celluloid Ceiling”
There is a metaphor used to describe the barriers of workplace advancement between women and minorities, people called it “glass ceiling”. In the film industry, glass barriers and pervasive stereotypes of women still persist and this is called “celluloid 
ceiling” in Hollywood.
An American film director, Ava DuVernay giving a strong women speech about gender inequality of the film industry, she mentioned about the senior movie studio execs are 93 percent male, and only 4 percent of studio films are directed by women, it is quite a big number of difference between the gender. She also had mentions has so many women went to Sundance 2012 and see the top 100 grossing films. Including all the combinations, teams, there were 109 people who directed to that top 100 grossing films. 107 were men, only two were women which is she and Angelina Jolie. There are so many women who did equal work as Ava, but not all of them can get into that Sundance class.
Hollywood is definitely a largely male-dominated industry. Some people may think there is a shortage of talented, creative women who interested in the film industry. But in fact, the number of females who enroll at the top film schools with males is almost the same. An LA Weekly article mentioned that there is 51 percent of graduate students at the NYU Tisch School of Arts and 46 percent who graduate at USC School of Cinematic Arts are females.
In reality, almost all of the majority studio heads were white males, and the same was true for senior management. The males get the power to lead the industry so does the women are very hard to get off these barriers to advancement opportunities because these barriers never go away.
“Unequal Pay for Equal Work”
It is not big news for people to hear about who works in the film/entertainment industry facing the gender pay gap. Many artists have spoken out about the persistent of the gender pay gap: Jennifer Lawrence, Patricia Arquette, Jessica Chastain, Kerry Washington, Emma Watson, Beyonce, etc.
Here is the interview with Jennifer Lawrence about her opinions on the pay gap:
Jennifer also wrote an article online to mentioned that she didn’t mean to speak out to the public about the salary problem until she saw the payroll of the artist that she work with on the Internet and she realized every man was higher than her even though she works with the equal workload. She also heard about some male actor like Jeremy Renner and Bradley Cooper all fought and succeeded in negotiation to powerful deals for themselves and earn 9 percent for their salary. But Jennifer or even Amy Adams, who have more Academy Award nominations than other male actors, only earn 7 percent.
Emma Watson made a speech about gender inequality, she mentioned female get labeled since they were born, the female cannot be “muscly” but the boy can. Also, the female is more easily being sexualized by certain elements of the media.
According to the speech, feminism is the belief that men and women should have equal rights opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes. But feminism is becoming a bad word nowadays, people even think that it is anti-male. People have the right to treat equally, why the female is being labeled to be weak and do not have the same power as the male in the workplace.
Gender inequality not just only exist in the film industry, and so much more other industry :
“Firefighters”
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, only 4 percent of firefighters are women. The first female firefighters in their fire stations are in 2018 that is Joliet, Ill. She is being announced that she is the first female recruit in the 165-year history of their fire stations. She mentioned that many departments started hiring women so many years ago, but some still have only one or some have none woman firefighter. It is really a big change in their fire station history and to show that it is having big gender inequality in the firefighter’s workplace. People think that women can not do the same job or be as strong as the male firefighters, in fact, women really can do the same level or much better than the others.
Lauren Howard is the first female firefighter at Chicago Fire Department and also the first woman to become a captain, she is the role models of all the female who have the same goal. Lauren wants to let people see the potential of women, if people see she can do it, maybe more female will try to apply for the job and not give up just because of all the labeled that women can not be a firefighter.
“Prove everything to others because I am a woman”
Alicia McCoy is the acting fire chief who worked with Winthrop Harbor Fire Department. In the early days, people doubted to see her hop off the fire engine at the scene of an emergency, people do not believe she is a firefighter, even her colleagues. She needs to do a lot of things to prove that she is capable of this job because she is a woman. She even needs to spend more time to train herself to let her colleagues know that she can do whatever a male firefighter can do. She needs to prove that female and male is no different, they are equal and no need to think that female will slow down or increase their workload.
“Reach More Female Firefighters”
As time goes by, people changed, the attitudes and get more acceptance to see a female being a firefighter or more female want to enter the career. “Sometimes you think this is never changing; attitudes are the same. Maybe there are pockets throughout the country like that, but in my experience, there’s been a lot of change,” said McCoy. The attitude of doubt the women in this industry has gone away, surprisingly people want more female firefighter nowadays. It is a really great career and it should not only be a career for male, everyone deserves a chance to help the community. It is not just for being diversity but wants to maintain different perspectives and help most of the people who are in need. It is very hard to change a traditional career with the only male to both male and female, we can see the gap is narrowing, but still have a very long way to go and need to deal with a solution to retain the female firefighters.
It is very unfair for the female in the workplace and we know all industry probably have the same gender inequality problem. I only mentioned a few examples above, but there is still a lot of problem in real life besides the unequal payment and opportunity. It is a right for women, they deserve to have an opportunity and equal earn or equal treatment. Being women doesn’t mean that they are no talent or different from the male, women also have creativity or even leadership.
It is a different generation that people are equal now, women can speak out what they want and stop those inequalities. Even though only a few portions of female artist are brave enough or have the power to spoke out, they still try their best to help the rest of the women to earn their right.
For those girls who want to become a firefighter, do not be afraid, although it is an industry that has large gender inequality in the stereotype that girl should not be trained to save human life and find a safe job. Time changed and the industry is also trying to make a better place for women, if you really want to do it, just go for it and give it a try.
In fact, it is also a time for me to find a full-time job, I know that I may also face the gender inequality and I am not afraid to speak out and I will try to fight for what I want and deserve. Hope that the inequality problem can truthy faced and have equal treatment in all the industry, not just only in the film industry and firefighters.
Reference
- Chernikoff, L. (2017, October 09). Why Ava Duvernay Hates the Word Diversity. Retrieved from https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a31310/ava-duvernay-diversity-and-self-care/
- Ogilvie, J. P. (2017, November 16). How Hollywood Keeps Out Women. Retrieved from https://www.laweekly.com/news/how-hollywood-keeps-out-women-5525034
- Paquette, D. (2015, October 13). Jennifer Lawrence: This is what men don’t think about when they negotiate their salary. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/10/13/why-jennifer-lawrence-is-sick-of-acting-adorable-at-work/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.dcda65245af1
- Lawrence, J. (n.d.). Jennifer Lawrence: Why Do These Dudes Make More Than Me? Retrieved from https://us11.campaign-archive.com/?u=a5b04a26aae05a24bc4efb63e&id=64e6f35176&e=fe292e1416
- ABC News (2015, November 12). Jennifer Lawrence Discusses Hollywood’s Gender Pay Gap. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA2MhigYsRw
- R. M. (2018, April 25). Female Firefighters Still Fight for Equality: ‘We’re Assumed Incompetent’. Retrieved from https://www.govtech.com/em/disaster/Female-Firefighter-Still-Fight-for-Equality-Were-assumed-Incompetent.html
- Chua, J. (2018, March 19). Recruiting female firefighters: Closing the gender gap. Retrieved from https://www.firerescue1.com/recruitment/articles/378107018-Recruiting-female-firefighters-Closing-the-gender-gap/
- Watson, E. (2017, June 22). ENGLISH SPEECH | EMMA WATSON: Gender Equality (English Subtitles). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIwU-9ZTTJc
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